Hand built pottery articles such as a cup may be made by manually forming and shaping and then assembling a plurality of separate pieces from a body of softened clay such as a bottom, a tubular sidewall, and a handle and attaching one end of the sidewall to the bottom and the handle to the sidewall. Hand built pottery articles may be shaped using profiling pottery tools by applying the tools to a body of softened clay. The design of a pottery tool may vary depending upon the desired shape or profile for all or part of the pottery article, where usually a single tool is used for obtaining a single shape. For example, if a cut or a deeply curved shape is desired, use of a tool having a thin blade or wire may be required. However, if a smooth shape is desired, a thicker tool having a more rounded edge may be more useful. In either case, usually only one tool is used for forming a single desired profile or shape into the clay body. Some portions of the body may also be shaped by the fingers of a potter's hand because a tool with a desired profile is unavailable.